Psalms in Book 5 affirm that God does answer prayer, God’s promises are valid and they include a long love song for God’s laws. The final 5 Psalms are songs of praise believed to have been written to be sung at the dedication of the second temple.

From “God is good” in previous psalms in Book 5 of the psalms, the first verse of Psalm 147 flips this changing the focus from God being good to his people to the people that God is good to. What is good for them? Singing praises to God is this song’s answer.

The books of Psalms are roughly themed like this:

Book 1: Psalms 1 – 41: God is beside us.
Book 2: Psalms 42 – 72: God goes before us
Book 3: Psalms 73 – 89: God is all around us.
Book 4: Psalms 90 – 106: God is above us.
Book 5: Psalms 107 – 150: God is among us.

147 Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
    for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the broken-hearted
    and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.

⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶ The Lord lifts up the humble;
    he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre!
⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds;
    he prepares rain for the earth;
    he makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He gives to the beasts their food,
    and to the young ravens that cry.
¹⁰ His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
¹¹ but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

¹² Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³ For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
¹⁴ He makes peace in your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
¹⁵ He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶ He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
¹⁷ He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
¹⁸ He sends out his word, and melts them:
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
¹⁹ He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and rules to Israel.
²⁰ He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his rules.
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 147 ESVUK

I have added paragraph breaks to the above psalm every time the psalmist goes back into praise. I don’t know if each section is supposed to start with praise to God or end with it; I just chose to start at random. What I am doing is showing just how much praise to God there is in the song.

If the meaning of Psalm 146 was to trust in God and not in politicians, Psalm 147 says do not trust in things that other people see as powerful: God takes no delight in powerful people. The only thing that is powerful is God.

But that is not the biggest difference between Psalms 146 and 147. Psalm 146 is about individuals but Psalm 147 is about God working through communities. Look at this list of what God does:

• He gathers the outcasts (verse 2) as do homeless charities like St George’s Crypt in Leeds.
• He heals the broken-hearted (v. 3) as do grief councellors, and blues singers. I have commented before om the similarity between lamenting psalms and the blues*.
• He binds up their wounds (v. 3) as do doctors, nurses, paramedics and parents.
• He counts the stars and gives them names (v. 4), as do astronomers and navigators.
• He is abundant in power (v. 5) As are kings, presidents and prime ministers.
• His understanding is beyond measure (v. 5), as is that of teachers, university professors, and research scientists, as well as poets, novelists, artists, and musicians.
• The Lord lifts up the humble (v. 6) as do civil rights activists.
• He casts the wicked to the ground (v. 6) as dolawyers, magistrates and judges.
• He prepares rain for coming weather (v. 8) as do meteorologists.
• He makes plants to grow an feeds animals (vv. 8 and 9) as do farmers and shepherds.
• He strengthens the bars of your gates (v. 13) so do engineers, builders and architects.
• He blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders (vv. 13 and 14) so do soldiers and diplomats

The paragraph for this request, if necessary, delimited with characters:Have you got it yet?

If you haven’t got it, it is emphasized again in verse 20, “He has not dealt thus with any other nation.” God gives us communities.

God gives us communities, and ideally, everybody is either doing the work of God and/or being helped. Yes, everybody. The list in Psalm 147 is not supposed to be exhaustive and is based on society 2,500 years ago. But if you work in banking, logistics on the warehouse floor, in an office, or in manufacturing (I am just choosing jobs I have done), then you are doing God’s work. No single person is able to do all that Psalm 147 says, but a community can.

The people not on the list are priests, Levites, and temple musicians (the musicians will get their turn in Psalm 150). If we think about who is doing God’s work, we may think of preachers, church workers, missionaries, Sunday school teachers, evangelists, even Christian blog writers. Psalm 147 does not say they are not doing God’s work; the point is that everybody is doing God’s work. Anyone who is part of a community is part of a work of God.

God’s power goes beyond that of the community. Communities are great because they contain people with different skills, so all needs are covered. They are multi-generational and continue when the previous generations are long gone. But God’s power goes beyond communities.

God can speak to the weather and it obeys. That’s why we are not to trust in the power of the horse or of the power of men’s legs (v. 10). Do not rely on the collective power of armies is the message here, the meaning of Psalm 147 is collective as is the answer, “but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,  in those who hope in his steadfast love.” The previous Psalm was individualistic, there is nothing wrong with individualism in the Bible. But individualism alone without looking at community belongs to the political and economic ideas of consumerism where people are only seen as consumers of goods and services. It is not found in the Bible.

I pray that I will be kept from becoming too individualistic.

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< Psalm 146 | Psalm 147 | Psalm 148 >

I have used a Theology of Work blog post as the foundation for this blog.
* The Blues
* Blues-Psalm 41